On sort of the spur of the moment, Saturday night my wife and I went to see One Night With the King with another couple, who are friends from the parish.
We had a wonderful time — not watching the movie, but laughing and joking afterwards about how awful it was. Even before the lights came up, we were voicing opinions. Here are some of our comments as we were walking out to the car (please remember that we're just simple movie-goers, not professional film critics):
"The Book of Esther is a terrific story; why didn't they just stick with that, instead of trying to make an epic, with all the spectacular computer-generated imagery shots?"
"The acting was so overdone!"
"The girl who played Esther was so smiley and upbeat at the beginning, she might have been Doris Day."
"Yeah, you wonder why she didn't burst into a chorus of Que Sera Sera."
"Peter O'Toole as King Saul? Suuure ...." [O'Toole gets top billing in the newspaper ads but his role consisted of a 60-second flashback cameo at the beginning.]
"But John Rhys-Davies [who played Mordecai] was great, as always."
"And Omar Sharif didn't do a bad job."
"The last movie that had both Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in it was Lawrence of Arabia; too bad they didn't have any scenes together in this one."
"It could have been a great movie if they'd done it as a human drama, like Masterpiece Theater."
"This is the kind of movie you'd see on one of the Christian cable-TV channels."
Professional critics apparently have not been especially kind. My favorite comment was from the New Daily News's Elizabeth Weitzman:
Brought to you by the producers of "The Omega Code," this preposterous adaptation of the Book of Esther is recommended viewing only for those impressed that it comes endorsed by the American Bible Society. [...] In itself, it's a riveting story. Unfortunately, director Michael Sajbel has envisioned an overwrought Lifetime movie of the week, complete with an Esther who could be a cast member of Laguna Beach and a king notable only for his washboard abs.
In summary: Don't bother.
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So this isn't about Elvis, then?
Posted by: bls | October 16, 2006 at 09:51 AM
I thought O'Toole was Samuel...
Posted by: Elmo | October 17, 2006 at 12:12 AM